This year our Jarai church had their Christmas celebration Saturday night, December 28th, and Sunday morning, December 29th. Both days include a meal, singing, and preaching. Our kids enjoyed wearing Khmer school uniforms for the Christmas service. It’s a highlight of their church year.

The month of December was very full with helping our church prepare for the celebration. Josh and I directed a youth Christmas pageant. We provided the script, costumes, and props and held three different rehearsals. There were two readers while the rest of the youth acted the various scenes out. This year we added the scene with the shepherds, and the sheep (elementary students) were quite a hit. The youth preformed their play both Saturday night and Sunday morning.

I wrote and taught a new tune to some verses in Jonah for the older elementary/jr. high group to sing. I worked with the piano player three different times on playing Christmas carols. I also worked two mornings with a few people who were leading the singing on singing harmony. Josh preached at the Saturday night gathering. It’s really fun to be able to work together as the body of Christ.

Christmas is a very full time of year and also a very fun time to be together and celebrate. For the Jarai Christmas celebrations take place at church – nothing happens in the homes.

Our kids survived pretty well. I was a bit nervous about going to a late service (Saturday night) and then getting up for a very long service and day Sunday morning. Thankfully, Ezra took a nap on Josh’s lap while I helped with the play and the singing. He was so tired!

We had a lovely day celebrating the birth of Christ. I feel like it’s the one day of year we hide away in our house and spend the day together as a family. Christmas Eve we delivered 13 bags of fruit, candy, and a Gospel tract to our neighbors. We always sing at least one Christmas carol. Afterwards we returned home for our traditional meal of tacos, followed by Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, popcorn, and watching the Muppets Christmas Carol.

Christmas morning we had our normal breakfast before we started in our the celebrations – to keep anyone from going crazy with hunger. We sang carols and then Becca did a Christmas play using Little People. She quoted Luke and Matthew. Afterwards the kids gave out gifts to each other and us.

Lunch was cinnamon rolls and omelettes. The cinnamon rolls came out well (the yeast was good), so I was happy the rest of the day.

In the afternoon we read, relaxed, and played games. We had our first ever family four-player games of Dutch Blitz. Isaiah learned how to play. It was an exciting day!

JD & Kim Crowley join is for Christmas dinner. They came in time to watch the kids’ Christmas pageant. We were honored to have the Crowleys for dinner – it was their first time in over 36 years to be without any one of the children. After dinner we sang carols together.

After the Crowley’s left, we gave the kids their gifts from us. It was a lovely day and we all enjoyed being together and celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I’ll add one more thing – each year for Advent we have the tradition of singing Advent/Christmas songs together each night before bed. A different child gets to light and blow out the candles each night. Each person gets to choose a song to sing. We do this every night until the end of December. Some favorites this year were Go Tell It On The Mountain (Anna), We Three Kings, and Hark, How the Bells. The last week our kids started enjoying singing Dives and Lazarus. It ended up in our carol book and became a favorite the last week of the month.

A Christmas tradition for our family is making giant gingerbread people. Each child makes a pattern for his/her cookie. Decorating is a blast, and it takes days to eat the whole thing!

We also made normal cut out Christmas cookies on another day. I was quite impressed with our kids decorating skills. This was the first year I made my own colored sugar sprinkles. We still have some leftovers cookies.

Can you guess what Anna lost? She truly lost it – maybe in the tamarind tree. We’ll never know.

The first Friday evening in December, our family had our traditional Christmas decorating party. I was feeling especially festive this year (no concussion 2017 and no pre-fulough packing stress 2018). However, shortly into our party my joy was gone. Our children quibbled over who got to put up certain ornaments and over whose turn it was to do all the special things we do for the month (candle lighting, advent calendar, turning on the lights, etc). It was like the evening was turned into a fights for one’s rights. Very frustrating. Then I was reminded of the reason for the celebration. Jesus came to save us from our sinful selfishness. To save us from demanding our rights. I stopped and reminded our kids that Jesus came to save them from their attitudes. We are so grateful.

Later as I reflected on our evening, I was reminded again – Jesus came to save ME from my selfishness. Sometimes Christmas can turn into an event with plans that revolve around me – what I want to do with the kids, traditions we need to keep, things that need to get done to celebrate. It’s easy to get upset when things don’t work out the way I want them to or when I’m disappointed. Jesus came to save me from the sin of insisting on things my own way – from the sin of serving myself and not others. So thankful He came to save. Come let us adore Him!

Be jealous

This past Sunday afternoon we had our yearly Bible Club Christmas party. We had over 36 kids attend – at least 12 were kids who rarely come or have never been to our Bible Club. We are very thankful and are praying they return. We started with playing Steal the Bacon, then we headed upstairs for singing and a lesson. Afterwards the kids each decorated a Christmas cookie. We ended with playing a clothesline relay game.

We’re very thankful the Carson ladies came with two of their Tampuan friends. The Carsons were a big help with Ezra and with being extra pairs of hands for me. We’re blessed with their friendship.

As soon as the party was over, we loaded our family in the car and headed back to church to help our youth practice for a Christmas play. Our weekends are quite full with helping with Christmas celebrations. For the past two weeks I’ve been helping two teenage boys with their Christmas song piano playing. Two Sunday afternoons ago I worked with our youth at church who want to learn to sing in harmony. We worked on the chorus of The First Noel. We will continue helping with music and the play until our church Christmas celebration on December 28 & 29.

On November 30th I taught at a meeting for Jarai and Tampuan ladies who are leaders in their churches. They usually meet at least once a year. There were at least 35 ladies there from 10 villages. I spoke on James 1:5 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in Khmer, since that is our common language. I was thrilled to have this opportunity. So thankful to God for helping me have time to prepare and for helping me speak. Thankful to Josh for watching the kids and making extra time for me to prepare my lesson.

We continue to have our weekly Saturday night Bible study with our Khmer neighbors. Davi is a new believer and comes with her children and some of her nieces and nephews. We sing together, Josh is teaching through Firm Foundations, and we pray.

December 1st our church had a baptism. About 15 people were baptized. We are so thankful to see God working in our church.

The first week of December we decorated our home for Christmas. The kids made a huge paper chain.

And there’s always the busyness of keeping an eye on children # 5!

For Becca’s birthday we spent a few hours at a pool in Ban Lung (45 mins away from us). We were impressed that all the older kids went down the big water slide multiple times. Clara always went down on Josh lap. Ezra loved the water.

This past Monday Becca and I had her birthday sleepover while Josh was away. We ate popcorn and played games. I taught Becca how to play Dutch Blitz.

This week I made the little girls a princess coloring book. Clara insisted we get a picture with the princess.

This week we celebrated Becca’s 10th birthday! It all started with her countdown calendar – Nancy Drew themed. One of the days was a movie and we watched 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. The kids loved it and it was fun to observe them watch a movie I’d seen so many times as a little kid.

Last Thursday we had Becca’s neighborhood birthday party. We usually have it on Sunday, but we moved it up so RakSmey (our 5 year old neighbor) could attend before he left for the Children’s Hospital to get his glass eye put in. Becca had a horse themed party – horse races, pin the tail on the horse, horse pinata, and horse cake & decorations.

We had over 50 people attend her party. This is the first year we had no cake leftover. (I did have another sheet cake ready in the fridge if we needed it!) Besides our neighbors we had several kids from our Jarai church attend, and the Fetterolfs made it for the piñata and cake.

Everyone enjoyed the horse races. In the pictures you can see RakSmey and Anna racing against each other. They are both 5.

The piñata was a hit – though we made it too strong and impossible to break open. I eventually had to rip it open and throw the candy/toys out from on top of a ladder. One of the best things was watching our neighbor Davi (a new believer) participate in the games. The joy she has now is a huge contrast to former somber self.

For Becca’s real birthday, this past Tuesday, we traveled to Ban Lung to go swimming for a few hours. The kids had a blast on the slides and even Ezra enjoyed the water. We came home and grilled hotdogs and made mac and cheese.

After dinner we spent some time looking at pictures and videos from Becca’s preemie days. What a wonderful reminder of God’s hand in our daughter’s life.

Thankful for our sweet first born daughter. Becca loves to read and draw. She’s very creative in designing crafts and projects for her siblings. She has started teaching English to a few kids who hang around at church when I meet my ladies twice a month. She prepares her own lessons and designs her own activities. Becca also had her first baby sitting job – I went across the street to talk with a sick neighbor lady while Becca watched the two younger girls who didn’t want to come along. She also has been helpful watching Ezra when he wakes up before my language lesson is over. We’re very thankful for her love for Jesus and her desire to be like Jesus. Thankful for our 10 years with our girl. Happy 10th Birthday, Becca!

Ezra is now an official walker! He started taking small steps back in September when he thought no one was watching him. Once I heard him laughing – he took 3 steps – but as soon as he saw me watching he plopped down and started crawling again. He did this several other times. Based on that, I was really expecting him to be an official walker last month, but he decided to wait until he turned 15 months.

Last week he was starting walk from place to place – this week he’s running! Watching him is a full-time job! He loves getting into things. Climbing on things. Eating things. He continues to be a very happy baby – if only he’d sleep through the night! Love this boy!

Ezra loves to play outside and I try to take him out every day around 3PM. He enjoys dirt and stones. He loves playing with his siblings when they let him. He often ruins their buildings and the things they’ve set up. Poor kid. He wants to be big like them.

Ezra has had really good health. Last month he had a fever and was acting weirdly – but thankfully it only lasted a few hours and then he was fine.

Last week we welcomed Naomi to our church. Her parent work with the children at our church. So thankful for this gift to her family. Her mom had a miscarriage right after Christmas last year. We were happy to visit them at the clinic near our home to welcome her a few hours after she was born.

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog this year, you’ve read a lot about our first furlough in the States. What a whirlwind trip! Many people have commented that they were exhausted after reading about our busy months. It was certainly a very full and busy time and a strange time in our lives. It’s not normal to leave your home and put routine life aside for 6 months to go around visiting family and friends. Who does that…oh yeah, missionaries.

We had such a good time visiting with family and friends. It was so good to catch up with people – to hear about what God has been doing in their lives, to meet their children, to see new homes, and to rejoice and weep with them. Our children loved spending time with new and old friends and with grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. We loved getting to do so many fun things that we don’t have access to in Cambodia – snow play, boating, skating, playgrounds, museums, church functions, etc (look back at the blog). It was lovely to take hot showers, have air conditioning, not worry about armies of ants, go to Costco and Aldi – and the library. We loved going to the library. Our kids got library cards and every time went we checked out over 50 books. All our kids finished the Greenville Library System’s Summer Reading Program in less than a week! I was reminded of all the privileges that come from living in America. We had a wonderful time and were blessed by the generosity of so many kind people.

Along with all the blessings came emotional exhaustion. It was exhausting to spend 6 months saying hello/goodbye over and over again. We would spend time with people – catch up – and then say goodbye. Halfway through, I was so exhausted from saying hello/goodbye to people that I didn’t even want to see anyone else. Our children started feeling it too. The hardest moment was when Clara started crying when she had to say goodbye to her 3-year-old cousins, “her friends” as she called them. I was shocked that it affected her that way. It made me cry.

Being in America made me realize how much easier it is to live in America than in Cambodia. We forget, and life in Cambodia becomes normal. I was reminded over and over again how easy it is to do things in America. This wasn’t a bad thing it was just one of those hmmm moments.

I really enjoyed the times I got to spend with many godly women – new friends and old. I’m thankful for the ladies who snatched me away for a meal or coffee to talk and encourage me, ask me good questions, and let me hear about their lives. I’m thankful for the ladies I was able to learn from. I’ll never forget the lady who would just start talking to God in the middle of our conversations: “Oh Lord, help that person and give them grace.” It made me rethink the phrase “pray without ceasing.”

Along with being encouraged by ladies, I was deeply sadden and discouraged with the loneliness I heard about from many women – Christian women. I was puzzled with the question – how can Christian women in good, faithful, small and large churches feel so alone – feel like there is no one who really cares about them or their spiritual walk. I asked several people for their thoughts about this. Each person acknowledged the problem and had theories for its cause.

I was surprised how much I missed our people back in Cambodia. When I’m in Cambodia, I really don’t miss anyone in American. Maybe that’s because I have instant access to them via internet. But when I was in America, I missed my sisters and brothers in Cambodia. I found myself often wondering how they were doing. It was good to get back to them.

While we enjoyed our time in the States, we were all glad to get back to our home and work in Cambodia. Even though we are foreigners here, this is where we belong right now and this is where God wants us. We’re back to our work. Back to our routine. Back to having a normal family life. Back home. We’re thankful for all the safety God gave us in the States, Thankful for all the time we had with family and friends. And we’re thankful to be back living in Cambodia.

During the last half of July and the first two weeks of August, we were based out my of parents home in York, PA. During that time we traveled to NY twice and to to different places in PA. The rest of the time seemed like it was filled up with packing our 14 pieces of checked luggage and all our carry-ons. It was a huge project!

Our kids absolutely loved my parents trampoline. I think my mom took 100’s of pictures of them jumping together.

I celebrated my birthday with my parents. My mom and the kids made a lovely fruit basket for me.

My dad bought everyone baseball gloves and spent a lot of time playing catch (with baseballs and footballs) with the kids. Then there was the nightly baseball games – girls against boys.

One day we went to the Indian Echo Caverns near Lancaster, PA. Unfortunately we got a bad flat tire and ended up needing to be towed. We still got to the caverns while waiting to be towed.

My dad made sure we were fed well. He was always going shopping to buy us more food!

We visited a lake two times to go swimming. The kids also went to First Night York.

Right before we left one of my parents’ neighbors came and did an amazing fireworks display right in our backyard. It was great. The also gave us hundred of sparklers to use – our kids had a blast.

The girls enjoyed playing with my dolls and wearing my old dresses. Becca made a skirt with my mom with some fabric Becca brought from Cambodia.

We had a lovely time with my parents and are thankful for their generosity in housing us and giving us three bedrooms with 5 beds (plus pack-n-play) – no one had to share a bed and every kid had a space to call their own, and that makes a big difference in everyone’s happiness level. And a big thanks to my mom for all the pictures her took – probably almost 1000!

I think this wraps up our furlough travels. I need to do one more blog to document our travels back to Cambodia and then maybe one to take time to reflect on our time in the States. But we’ll see……

This week we celebrated our 5th Cambodian Coronation Day. It was a delight to spend the morning and evening celebrating the crowning of three queens and two kings.

The day included cookie baking and decorating, crown making, face painting, and a coronation ceremony with entertainment provided. So glad to have a day to celebrate in October.

The first week in August we took a quick trip up to visit with my older brother, Sam, and his family in Goshen, NY. We had a great time visiting with them. Lots of cousin playing time. One morning we went to a horse cart racing museum. Becca was thrilled!

We also were able to visit with Martin – the friend who biked into Cambodia to visit us last January. He gave us a great tour of his parents’ dairy farm.

The weekend of July 20th we visited a supporting church on Long Island, NY. We had a great time connecting with the families there and enjoyed two different pool meals with families from the churches. Both meals included birthday cakes for me.

On the way to NY, we stopped by to visit with my grad school roommate, Ashley LeBlanc. We enjoyed catching up and the kids loved riding Mr. Orlando’s go-carts and swimming in the pool.

We also visited with Parke and Lynnelle Brown. Good to see our friends from Texas and meet their son, Henry.

We also got to visit with the Andrew Jensen family – no direct relations of ours. We enjoyed spending time with them.

My good friend, Rebekah Yamada, came up for a several hour visit. It was good to see her again and have a break from packing to go back to Cambodia.

I think that covers most of our extra visiting in the month of July. I spoke at a supporting church one evening at their ladies night out. The theme was from Ecclesiasties 3. Becca especially enjoyed playing the games.

And I think that sums up the month os July. Sometime Later I’ll post about our time at my parents and our last visits in August before we returned to Cambodia. And maybe someday I’ll have time to type up some reflections on the furlough experience.

On Monday, September 2nd, we started our new school year (after our very long break in the States). It ended up being a very rough starting week, as 4 of our kids ended up getting bad colds in varying degrees, which included fevers and very bad coughs. But….we plodded on. This week will complete our 6th week of school.

Becca has started the 4th grade. Isaiah started 2nd. Anna and Clara have started kindergarten together. Kindergarten has so far been the funnest class of the year. Both girls are doing well and it’s fun to have two students. Anna could probably go faster and Clara could wait to start – but the two even each other out nicely, and Clara really enjoys being included in school.

Ezra does his own thing during school – sometimes naps, sometimes wanders, sometimes snacks. Josh suggested he join kindergarten with the girls…

We were glad to get back to our Jarai church and friends. Last month Josh participated in a Jarai Bible School run by the Jarai.

We also had a visit from the CMA Cambodian field director.

Home schooling and taking care of Ezra pretty much takes up all my time now. It’s been encouraging to get back into routines after 6 months of moving around and changing schedules. I started Christ Church’s Bible Reading Challenge and am really enjoying #KeepThe Feast.

Twice in July we were able to visit with my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Susan. The first time the hosted us for a night as we were passing through and needing a place to stay. The second time we stayed a few nights with them on our way to a supporting church. My aunt and cousin took us to The Turkey Hill Experience. Our kids loves making their own ice cream commercials, testing iced tea, and testing ice cream.

We had a great time visiting and my aunt gave the kids lots of treasures. She also gave me several old pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents. It was a fun time for all. (The picture below is of my Great Grandma on my dad’s side and her mom.)

We also celebrated my birthday at their house. My aunt made a nice dinner and Becca did a special spoon play for me. It was a good week there.

Yes, we’re still catching up on all our travels in the States! After leaving Keswick, we went to Piscataway, NJ – the town of my birth, home a a supporting church, and home to my Grandma Sutter and some of my aunts and uncles. Our first stop was to have Saturday lunch (July 13th) with Mr. and Mrs. Puccio. Mrs. Puccio was my 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school teacher and good friend. She was the one who mentored me as I started teaching the 3rd and 4th grade Sunday class at the age of 12. We had a great time of fellowship at their house. The kids enjoyed swimming. I’m pretty sure the Puccios haven’t aged a bit since I was in the 3rd grade!

Saturday evening we went to my grandma’s house to celebrate my Uncle John’s 50th birthday. Uncle John is a very special uncle – loved by all – especially his nieces and nephews. Our kids love him. It was special to see him give our kids swing rides on the very swing my grandfather and uncle gave me swing rides on.

We enjoyed our visit with our church in NJ. This is the church I grew up in 15 years. Sunday evening we went to my Aunt’s house and went swimming. We made it back to Piscataway one more time the night before we flew back to Cambodia. We spent the night there, so we would be closer to the airport. It was good to see Grandma and Uncle John one last time before leaving the country. Even Uncle Joey (my youngest brother) stopped in to say goodbye.

A few weeks ago, I got an educational email about International Talk Like a Pirate Day….so I decided to take a fun day celebrating pirates. I felt like the kids deserved a break after 2.5 weeks in school. We dressed like pirates – some kids had hooks or patches, some just had tattoos.

We started the day reading pirate books and each pirate made their own flag. While eating lunch another pirate, Short Beard be his name, boarded our ship. As soon as he closed the hatch, we all attacked him (though Pirate Clara secretly tried to save him). I, Captain Pickles, was not interested in anyone taking over me ship. We captured him, but let him eat our vittles. At lunch we filled our mugs with grog (limeade mixed with soda water) and sang a song about the wonderful Captain Pickles. – errrr me.

In the afternoon, Pirate Clara and I made chocolate cake. Then Ansy, Pimbles, and Captain Hook along with Pirate Clara all buried silver coins outside and made maps for the rest of us to find them.

After our pirate supper we played pirates and then fired off some cannon balls (balloon games) and ended with the new Captian Short Beard telling a pirate story. Truth is, I turned me ship over to Captain Short Beard when he won me over with his good looks and wild kissing.

A very fine day indeed…Arrrrrrrr! Hoorah!